The present invention relates to gas turbine engines, and more particularly to seals for bearing compartments of gas turbine engines.
The rotating shafts and other rotating turbomachinery of gas turbine engines are supported from a non-rotating structure by arrays of anti-friction bearings. In many engines, anti-friction bearings are enclosed in bearing compartments that allow the anti-friction bearings to be more easily lubricated and cooled.
Bearing compartments can be sealed around the shaft by various types of seals including a seal assembly with a carbon seal and a seal plate. The seal plate is mounted on the shaft to rotate therewith and has a contact face which engages and interfaces with the fixed carbon seal. The carbon seal is movable (axially relative to the shaft) against and away from the seal plate by springs and/or air pressure. Typically, the interfacing surfaces that comprise the contact face of the seal plate and the contact face of the carbon seal are lubricated to minimize friction and wear.
In typical legacy carbon seal designs, a translating seal carrier is not removable (in-situ) without removing the entire seal assembly. Therefore, additional engine hardware is required to be removed/inspected/replaced when there is an engine problem associated only with the carbon seal.